Whenever Mary Ellen Forte from Information Week calls, it sounds like she doesn’t think I’ll take the assignment. Information Week is, as it’s name suggests, a Weekly, and as such, the deadlines are fast and furious, which is my preference. This time around, Mary Ellen mentioned “A group of Penguins walking around, going somewhere. And they have to have personality”. My first reaction was to kill off most of what might constitute a “group” of penguins and focus on just one or two, and simply suggest the idea that there are more out there.

The focus of the article is where Linux will go next. I’d say my biggest challenge here wasn’t giving the penguins a personality, but trying to ignore the multitude of penguin personalities that Hollywood had thrown at us in the last couple of years.

The penguin is the mascot of the Linux operating system, for those of you who don’t know. Apparently, Linux devotees are like Apple users, only geekier, more devoted, and they actually know how a computer works.

I thought I'd make a model of the penguin to see how the light would fall. ...

I know how popular Sculpy is around here, so I felt an obligation to use the stuff....

Dale - Nice one! Looks like it was a fun job to work on. The Sculpy sculpture is outtasight. those eyes look familiar....

Brian StaufferOctober 29, 2007

damn, I WANT that sculture.

Zina SaundersOctober 30, 2007

Your penguin is fab! I once tried to do a sculpey of a dragon for a job, but it came out like all my sculptures: it looked like a worm.

laura t.October 30, 2007

are you implying mac freaks or windows operators don't know how these boxes work? them's fightin' words my friend....
let's have an official throwdown, maccers vs linux geeks. the windows people can serve drinks.
nice painting :) i love the exhausted lil guy.

Tim O\'BrienOctober 30, 2007

Great post Dale. I have made a few models...let me rephrase that...SCULPTED a few models for assignments. They do help see the volume of an object. Yours looks great.

Jim PaillotOctober 30, 2007

Very cool. Nice illo and cool sculpy penguin. Thomas Hart Benton used to create sculpted mock ups before every mural. They were terrific but they weren't penguins.
Stephanos 1, Benton 0.

Christoph HitzOctober 30, 2007

Dale,
Very cooooool show and tell. Did you photograph the binoculars?

Bob StaakeOctober 31, 2007

dale, you can't fool us. those seemingly innocent "penguins" of yours? plastic explosives. THIS is what the bush administration has warned us about; illustrators who seek to cause terror within art supply stores around the country! we're on to you, buddy! (oh, nice illo too!)